Part II:
The Local Universe: Papers 32-56
The Urantia Book
PART II
The Local
Universe
PAPER 32
THE EVOLUTION OF LOCAL UNIVERSES
Presented by a Mighty Messenger
temporarily attached to the Supreme Council of Nebadon and
assigned to this mission by Gabriel of Salvington
32:0.1 A LOCAL universe is the handiwork of a
Creator Son of the Paradise order of Michael. It comprises one
hundred constellations, each embracing one hundred systems of
inhabited worlds. Each system will eventually contain
approximately one thousand inhabited spheres.
32:0.2 These universes of time and space are
all evolutionary. The creative plan of the Paradise Michaels
always proceeds along the path of gradual evolvement and
progressive development of the physical, intellectual, and
spiritual natures and capacities of the manifold creatures who
inhabit the varied orders of spheres comprising such a local
universe.
32:0.3 Urantia belongs to a local universe
whose sovereign is the God-man of Nebadon, Jesus of Nazareth and
Michael of Salvington. And all of Michael's plans for this local
universe were fully approved by the Paradise Trinity before he
ever embarked upon the supreme adventure of space.
32:0.4 The Sons of God may choose the realms
of their creator activities, but these material creations were
originally projected and planned by the Paradise Architects of
the Master Universe.
1. PHYSICAL EMERGENCE OF UNIVERSES
32:1.1 The preuniverse manipulations of
space-force and the primordial energies are the work of the
Paradise Master Force Organizers; but in the superuniverse
domains, when emergent energy becomes responsive to local or
linear gravity, they retire in favor of the power directors of
the superuniverse concerned.
32:1.2 These power directors function alone in
the prematerial and postforce phases of a local universe
creation. There is no opportunity for a Creator Son to begin
universe organization until the power directors have effected
the mobilization of the space-energies sufficiently to provide a
material foundation -- literal suns and material spheres -- for
the emerging universe.
32:1.3 The local universes are all
approximately of the same energy potential, though they differ
greatly in physical dimensions and may vary in visible-matter
content from time to time. The power charge and potential-matter
endowment of a local universe are determined by the
manipulations of the power directors and their predecessors as
well as by the Creator Son's activities and by the endowment of
the inherent physical control possessed by his creative
associate.
32:1.4 The energy charge of a local universe
is approximately one one-hundred-thousandth of the force
endowment of its superuniverse. In the case of Nebadon, your
local universe, the mass materialization is a trifle less.
Physically speaking, Nebadon possesses all of the physical
endowment of energy and matter that may be found in any of the
Orvonton local creations. The only physical limitation upon the
developmental expansion of the Nebadon universe consists in the
quantitative charge of space-energy held captive by the gravity
control of the associated powers and personalities of the
combined universe mechanism.
32:1.5 When energy-matter has attained a
certain stage in mass materialization, a Paradise Creator Son
appears upon the scene, accompanied by a Creative Daughter of
the Infinite Spirit. Simultaneously with the arrival of the
Creator Son, work is begun upon the architectural sphere which
is to become the headquarters world of the projected local
universe. For long ages such a local creation evolves, suns
become stabilized, planets form and swing into their orbits,
while the work of creating the architectural worlds which are to
serve as constellation headquarters and system capitals
continues.
2. UNIVERSE ORGANIZATION
32:2.1 The Creator Sons are preceded in
universe organization by the power directors and other beings
originating in the Third Source and Center. From the energies of
space, thus previously organized, Michael, your Creator Son,
established the inhabited realms of the universe of Nebadon and
ever since has been painstakingly devoted to their
administration. From pre-existent energy these divine Sons
materialize visible matter, project living creatures, and with
the co-operation of the universe presence of the Infinite
Spirit, create a diverse retinue of spirit personalities.
32:2.2 These power directors and energy
controllers who long preceded the Creator Son in the preliminary
physical work of universe organization later serve in
magnificent liaison with this Universe Son, forever remaining in
associated control of those energies which they originally
organized and circuitized. On Salvington there now function the
same one hundred power centers who co-operated with your Creator
Son in the original formation of this local universe.
32:2.3 The first completed act of physical
creation in Nebadon consisted in the organization of the
headquarters world, the architectural sphere of Salvington, with
its satellites. From the time of the initial moves of the power
centers and physical controllers to the arrival of the living
staff on the completed spheres of Salvington, there intervened a
little over one billion years of your present planetary time.
The construction of Salvington was immediately followed by the
creation of the one hundred headquarters worlds of the projected
constellations and the ten thousand headquarters spheres of the
projected local systems of planetary control and administration,
together with their architectural satellites. Such architectural
worlds are designed to accommodate both physical and spiritual
personalities as well as the intervening morontia or transition
stages of being.
32:2.4 Salvington, the headquarters of
Nebadon, is situated at the exact energy-mass center of the
local universe. But your local universe is not a single
astronomic system, though a large system does exist at its
physical center.
32:2.5 Salvington is the personal headquarters
of Michael of Nebadon, but he will not always be found there.
While the smooth functioning of your local universe no longer
requires the fixed presence of the Creator Son at the capital
sphere, this was not true of the earlier epochs of physical
organization. A Creator Son is unable to leave his headquarters
world until such a time as gravity stabilization of the realm
has been effected through the materialization of sufficient
energy to enable the various circuits and systems to
counterbalance one another by mutual material attraction.
32:2.6 Presently, the physical plan of a
universe is completed, and the Creator Son, in association with
the Creative Spirit, projects his plan of life creation;
whereupon does this representation of the Infinite Spirit begin
her universe function as a distinct creative personality. When
this first creative act is formulated and executed, there
springs into being the Bright and Morning Star, the
personification of this initial creative concept of identity and
ideal of divinity. This is the chief executive of the universe,
the personal associate of the Creator Son, one like him in all
aspects of character, though markedly limited in the attributes
of divinity.
32:2.7 And now that the right-hand helper and
chief executive of the Creator Son has been provided, there
ensues the bringing into existence of a vast and wonderful array
of diverse creatures. The sons and daughters of the local
universe are forthcoming, and soon thereafter the government of
such a creation is provided, extending from the supreme councils
of the universe to the fathers of the constellations and the
sovereigns of the local systems -- the aggregations of those
worlds which are designed subsequently to become the homes of
the varied mortal races of will creatures; and each of these
worlds will be presided over by a Planetary Prince.
32:2.8 And then, when such a universe has been
so completely organized and so repletely manned, does the
Creator Son enter into the Father's proposal to create mortal
man in their divine image.
32:2.9 The organization of planetary abodes is
still progressing in Nebadon, for this universe is, indeed, a
young cluster in the starry and planetary realms of Orvonton. At
the last registry there were 3,840,101 inhabited planets in
Nebadon, and Satania, the local system of your world, is fairly
typical of other systems.
32:2.10 Satania is not a uniform physical
system, a single astronomic unit or organization. Its 619
inhabited worlds are located in over five hundred different
physical systems. Only five have more than two inhabited worlds,
and of these only one has four peopled planets, while there are
forty-six having two inhabited worlds.
32:2.11 The Satania system of inhabited worlds
is far removed from Uversa and that great sun cluster which
functions as the physical or astronomic center of the seventh
superuniverse. From Jerusem, the headquarters of Satania, it is
over two hundred thousand light-years to the physical center of
the superuniverse of Orvonton, far, far away in the dense
diameter of the Milky Way. Satania is on the periphery of the
local universe, and Nebadon is now well out towards the edge of
Orvonton. From the outermost system of inhabited worlds to the
center of the superuniverse is a trifle less than two hundred
and fifty thousand light-years.
32:2.12 The universe of Nebadon now swings far
to the south and east in the superuniverse circuit of Orvonton.
The nearest neighboring universes are: Avalon, Henselon,
Sanselon, Portalon, Wolvering, Fanoving, and Alvoring.
32:2.13 But the evolution of a local universe
is a long narrative. Papers dealing with the superuniverse
introduce this subject, those of this section, treating of the
local creations, continue it, while those to follow, touching
upon the history and destiny of Urantia, complete the story. But
you can adequately comprehend the destiny of the mortals of such
a local creation only by a perusal of the narratives of the life
and teachings of your Creator Son as he once lived the life of
man, in the likeness of mortal flesh, on your own evolutionary
world.
3. THE EVOLUTIONARY IDEA
32:3.1 The only creation that is perfectly
settled is Havona, the central universe, which was made directly
by the thought of the Universal Father and the word of the
Eternal Son. Havona is an existential, perfect, and replete
universe, surrounding the home of the eternal Deities, the
center of all things. The creations of the seven superuniverses
are finite, evolutionary, and consistently progressive.
32:3.2 The physical systems of time and space
are all evolutionary in origin. They are not even physically
stabilized until they are swung into the settled circuits of
their superuniverses. Neither is a local universe settled in
light and life until its physical possibilities of expansion and
development have been exhausted, and until the spiritual status
of all its inhabited worlds has been forever settled and
stabilized.
32:3.3 Except in the central universe,
perfection is a progressive attainment. In the central creation
we have a pattern of perfection, but all other realms must
attain that perfection by the methods established for the
advancement of those particular worlds or universes. And an
almost infinite variety characterizes the plans of the Creator
Sons for organizing, evolving, disciplining, and settling their
respective local universes.
32:3.4 With the exception of the deity
presence of the Father, every local universe is, in a certain
sense, a duplication of the administrative organization of the
central or pattern creation. Although the Universal Father is
personally present in the residential universe, he does not
indwell the minds of the beings originating in that universe as
he does literally dwell with the souls of the mortals of time
and space. There seems to be an all-wise compensation in the
adjustment and regulation of the spiritual affairs of the
far-flung creation. In the central universe the Father is
personally present as such but absent in the minds of the
children of that perfect creation; in the universes of space the
Father is absent in person, being represented by his Sovereign
Sons, while he is intimately present in the minds of his mortal
children, being spiritually represented by the prepersonal
presence of the Mystery Monitors that reside in the minds of
these will creatures.
32:3.5 On the headquarters of a local universe
there reside all those creator and creative personalities who
represent self-contained authority and administrative autonomy
except the personal presence of the Universal Father. In the
local universe there are to be found something of everyone and
someone of almost every class of intelligent beings existing in
the central universe except the Universal Father. Although the
Universal Father is not personally present in a local universe,
he is personally represented by its Creator Son, sometime
vicegerent of God and subsequently supreme and sovereign ruler
in his own right.
32:3.6 The farther down the scale of life we
go, the more difficult it becomes to locate, with the eye of
faith, the invisible Father. The lower creatures -- and
sometimes even the higher personalities -- find it difficult
always to envisage the Universal Father in his Creator Sons. And
so, pending the time of their spiritual exaltation, when
perfection of development will enable them to see God in person,
they grow weary in progression, entertain spiritual doubts,
stumble into confusion, and thus isolate themselves from the
progressive spiritual aims of their time and universe. In this
way they lose the ability to see the Father when beholding the
Creator Son. The surest safeguard for the creature throughout
the long struggle to attain the Father, during this time when
inherent conditions make such attainment impossible, is
tenaciously to hold on to the truth-fact of the Father's
presence in his Sons. Literally and figuratively, spiritually
and personally, the Father and the Sons are one. It is a fact:
He who has seen a Creator Son has seen the Father.
32:3.7 The personalities of a given universe
are settled and dependable, at the start, only in accordance
with their degree of kinship to Deity. When creature origin
departs sufficiently far from the original and divine Sources,
whether we are dealing with the Sons of God or the creatures of
ministry belonging to the Infinite Spirit, there is an increase
in the possibility of disharmony, confusion, and sometimes
rebellion -- sin.
32:3.8 Excepting perfect beings of Deity
origin, all will creatures in the superuniverses are of
evolutionary nature, beginning in lowly estate and climbing ever
upward, in reality inward. Even highly spiritual personalities
continue to ascend the scale of life by progressive translations
from life to life and from sphere to sphere. And in the case of
those who entertain the Mystery Monitors, there is indeed no
limit to the possible heights of their spiritual ascent and
universe attainment.
32:3.9 The perfection of the creatures of
time, when finally achieved, is wholly an acquirement, a bona
fide personality possession. While the elements of grace are
freely admixed, nevertheless, the creature attainments are the
result of individual effort and actual living, personality
reaction to the existing environment.
32:3.10 The fact of animal evolutionary origin
does not attach stigma to any personality in the sight of the
universe as that is the exclusive method of producing one of the
two basic types of finite intelligent will creatures. When the
heights of perfection and eternity are attained, all the more
honor to those who began at the bottom and joyfully climbed the
ladder of life, round by round, and who, when they do reach the
heights of glory, will have gained a personal experience which
embodies an actual knowledge of every phase of life from the
bottom to the top.
32:3.11 In all this is shown the wisdom of the
Creators. It would be just as easy for the Universal Father to
make all mortals perfect beings, to impart perfection by his
divine word. But that would deprive them of the wonderful
experience of the adventure and training associated with the
long and gradual inward climb, an experience to be had only by
those who are so fortunate as to begin at the very bottom of
living existence.
32:3.12 In the universes encircling Havona
there are provided only a sufficient number of perfect creatures
to meet the need for pattern teacher guides for those who are
ascending the evolutionary scale of life. The experiential
nature of the evolutionary type of personality is the natural
cosmic complement of the ever-perfect natures of the
Paradise-Havona creatures. In reality, both perfect and
perfected creatures are incomplete as regards finite totality.
But in the complemental association of the existentially perfect
creatures of the Paradise-Havona system with the experientially
perfected finaliters ascending from the evolutionary universes,
both types find release from inherent limitations and thus may
conjointly attempt to reach the sublime heights of the ultimate
of creature status.
32:3.13 These creature transactions are the
universe repercussions of actions and reactions within the
Sevenfold Deity, wherein the eternal divinity of the Paradise
Trinity is conjoined with the evolving divinity of the Supreme
Creators of the time-space universes in, by, and through the
power-actualizing Deity of the Supreme Being.
32:3.14 The divinely perfect creature and the
evolutionary perfected creature are equal in degree of divinity
potential, but they differ in kind. Each must depend on the
other to attain supremacy of service. The evolutionary
superuniverses depend on perfect Havona to provide the final
training for their ascending citizens, but so does the perfect
central universe require the existence of the perfecting
superuniverses to provide for the full development of its
descending inhabitants.
32:3.15 The two prime manifestations of finite
reality, innate perfection and evolved perfection, be they
personalities or universes, are co-ordinate, dependent, and
integrated. Each requires the other to achieve completion of
function, service, and destiny.
4. GOD'S RELATION TO A LOCAL UNIVERSE
32:4.1 Do not entertain the idea that, since
the Universal Father has delegated so much of himself and his
power to others, he is a silent or inactive member of the Deity
partnership. Aside from personality domains and Adjuster
bestowal, he is apparently the least active of the Paradise
Deities in that he allows his Deity co-ordinates, his Sons, and
numerous created intelligences to perform so much in the
carrying out of his eternal purpose. He is the silent member of
the creative trio only in that he never does aught which any of
his co-ordinate or subordinate associates can do.
32:4.2 God has full understanding of the need
of every intelligent creature for function and experience, and
therefore, in every situation, be it concerned with the destiny
of a universe or the welfare of the humblest of his creatures,
God retires from activity in favor of the galaxy of creature and
Creator personalities who inherently intervene between himself
and any given universe situation or creative event. But
notwithstanding this retirement, this exhibition of infinite
co-ordination, there is on God's part an actual, literal, and
personal participation in these events by and through these
ordained agencies and personalities. The Father is working in
and through all these channels for the welfare of all his
far-flung creation.
32:4.3 As regards the policies, conduct, and
administration of a local universe, the Universal Father acts in
the person of his Creator Son. In the interrelationships of the
Sons of God, in the group associations of the personalities of
origin in the Third Source and Center, or in the relationship
between any other creatures, such as human beings -- as concerns
such associations the Universal Father never intervenes. The law
of the Creator Son, the rule of the Constellation Fathers, the
System Sovereigns, and the Planetary Princes -- the ordained
policies and procedures for that universe -- always prevail.
There is no division of authority; never is there a cross
working of divine power and purpose. The Deities are in perfect
and eternal unanimity.
32:4.4 The Creator Son rules supreme in all
matters of ethical associations, the relations of any division
of creatures to any other class of creatures or of two or more
individuals within any given group; but such a plan does not
mean that the Universal Father may not in his own way intervene
and do aught that pleases the divine mind with any individual
creature throughout all creation, as pertains to that
individual's present status or future prospects and as concerns
the Father's eternal plan and infinite purpose.
32:4.5 In the mortal will creatures the Father
is actually present in the indwelling Adjuster, a fragment of
his prepersonal spirit; and the Father is also the source of the
personality of such a mortal will creature.
32:4.6 These Thought Adjusters, the bestowals
of the Universal Father, are comparatively isolated; they
indwell human minds but have no discernible connection with the
ethical affairs of a local creation. They are not directly
co-ordinated with the seraphic service nor with the
administration of systems, constellations, or a local universe,
not even with the rule of a Creator Son, whose will is the
supreme law of his universe.
32:4.7 The indwelling Adjusters are one of
God's separate but unified modes of contact with the creatures
of his all but infinite creation. Thus does he who is invisible
to mortal man manifest his presence, and could he do so, he
would show himself to us in still other ways, but such further
revelation is not divinely possible.
32:4.8 We can see and understand the mechanism
whereby the Sons enjoy intimate and complete knowledge regarding
the universes of their jurisdiction; but we cannot fully
comprehend the methods whereby God is so fully and personally
conversant with the details of the universe of universes,
although we at least can recognize the avenue whereby the
Universal Father can receive information regarding, and manifest
his presence to, the beings of his immense creation. Through the
personality circuit the Father is cognizant -- has personal
knowledge -- of all the thoughts and acts of all the beings in
all the systems of all the universes of all creation. Though we
cannot fully grasp this technique of God's communion with his
children, we can be strengthened in the assurance that the "Lord
knows his children," and that of each one of us "he takes note
where we were born."
32:4.9 In your universe and in your heart the
Universal Father is present, spiritually speaking, by one of the
Seven Master Spirits of central abode and, specifically, by the
divine Adjuster who lives and works and waits in the depths of
the mortal mind.
32:4.10 God is not a self-centered
personality; the Father freely distributes himself to his
creation and to his creatures. He lives and acts, not only in
the Deities, but also in his Sons, whom he intrusts with the
doing of everything that it is divinely possible for them to do.
The Universal Father has truly divested himself of every
function which it is possible for another being to perform. And
this is just as true of mortal man as of the Creator Son who
rules in God's stead at the headquarters of a local universe.
Thus we behold the outworking of the ideal and infinite love of
the Universal Father.
32:4.11 In this universal bestowal of himself
we have abundant proof of both the magnitude and the magnanimity
of the Father's divine nature. If God has withheld aught of
himself from the universal creation, then of that residue he is
in lavish generosity bestowing the Thought Adjusters upon the
mortals of the realms, the Mystery Monitors of time, who so
patiently indwell the mortal candidates for life everlasting.
32:4.12 The Universal Father has poured out
himself, as it were, to make all creation rich in personality
possession and potential spiritual attainment. God has given us
himself that we may be like him, and he has reserved for himself
of power and glory only that which is necessary for the
maintenance of those things for the love of which he has thus
divested himself of all things else.
5. THE ETERNAL AND DIVINE PURPOSE
32:5.1 There is a great and glorious purpose
in the march of the universes through space. All of your mortal
struggling is not in vain. We are all part of an immense plan, a
gigantic enterprise, and it is the vastness of the undertaking
that renders it impossible to see very much of it at any one
time and during any one life. We are all a part of an eternal
project which the Gods are supervising and outworking. The whole
marvelous and universal mechanism moves on majestically through
space to the music of the meter of the infinite thought and the
eternal purpose of the First Great Source and Center.
32:5.2 The eternal purpose of the eternal God
is a high spiritual ideal. The events of time and the struggles
of material existence are but the transient scaffolding which
bridges over to the other side, to the promised land of
spiritual reality and supernal existence. Of course, you mortals
find it difficult to grasp the idea of an eternal purpose; you
are virtually unable to comprehend the thought of eternity,
something never beginning and never ending. Everything familiar
to you has an end.
32:5.3 As regards an individual life, the
duration of a realm, or the chronology of any connected series
of events, it would seem that we are dealing with an isolated
stretch of time; everything seems to have a beginning and an
end. And it would appear that a series of such experiences,
lives, ages, or epochs, when successively arranged, constitutes
a straightaway drive, an isolated event of time flashing
momentarily across the infinite face of eternity. But when we
look at all this from behind the scenes, a more comprehensive
view and a more complete understanding suggest that such an
explanation is inadequate, disconnected, and wholly unsuited
properly to account for, and otherwise to correlate, the
transactions of time with the underlying purposes and basic
reactions of eternity.
32:5.4 To me it seems more fitting, for
purposes of explanation to the mortal mind, to conceive of
eternity as a cycle and the eternal purpose as an endless
circle, a cycle of eternity in some way synchronized with the
transient material cycles of time. As regards the sectors of
time connected with, and forming a part of, the cycle of
eternity, we are forced to recognize that such temporary epochs
are born, live, and die just as the temporary beings of time are
born, live, and die. Most human beings die because, having
failed to achieve the spirit level of Adjuster fusion, the
metamorphosis of death constitutes the only possible procedure
whereby they may escape the fetters of time and the bonds of
material creation, thereby being enabled to strike spiritual
step with the progressive procession of eternity. Having
survived the trial life of time and material existence, it
becomes possible for you to continue on in touch with, even as a
part of, eternity, swinging on forever with the worlds of space
around the circle of the eternal ages.
32:5.5 The sectors of time are like the
flashes of personality in temporal form; they appear for a
season, and then they are lost to human sight, only to reappear
as new actors and continuing factors in the higher life of the
endless swing around the eternal circle. Eternity can hardly be
conceived as a straightaway drive, in view of our belief in a
delimited universe moving over a vast, elongated circle around
the central dwelling place of the Universal Father.
32:5.6 Frankly, eternity is incomprehensible
to the finite mind of time. You simply cannot grasp it; you
cannot comprehend it. I do not completely visualize it, and even
if I did, it would be impossible for me to convey my concept to
the human mind. Nevertheless, I have done my best to portray
something of our viewpoint, to tell you somewhat of our
understanding of things eternal. I am endeavoring to aid you in
the crystallization of your thoughts about these values which
are of infinite nature and eternal import.
32:5.7
There is in the mind of God a plan
which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this
plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited
progress, and endless life. And the infinite treasures of such a
matchless career are yours for the striving!
32:5.8 The goal of eternity is ahead!
The
adventure of divinity attainment lies before you! The race for
perfection is on! whosoever will may enter, and certain victory
will crown the efforts of every human being who will run the
race of faith and trust, depending every step of the way on the
leading of the indwelling Adjuster and on the guidance of that
good spirit of the Universe Son, which so freely has been poured
out upon all flesh.
32:5.9
Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily attached to the
Supreme Council of Nebadon and assigned to this mission by
Gabriel of Salvington.
